Andy Rooney: Our Favorite Curmudgeon

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Andy Rooney spared few punches as he skewered pretty much anything that had ever annoyed him.

By: Linnea Crowther

4 years ago

One year ago today, we lost our favorite curmudgeon – Andy Rooney. For more than 40 years, he spared few punches as he skewered pretty much anything that had ever annoyed him on the "60 Minutes"segment "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney."

Rooney was crotchety, sour and sarcastic – and we loved it. Even when he struck a too-raw nerve – as he sometimes did while opining about subjects like race, sexuality and suicide – his public generally accepted his explanation and apology, and tuned in for his next rant. We tolerated Rooney even when we disagreed with his views… but we liked him best when he expressed the super-curmudgeonly version of our own feelings. Feelings like confusion over why some "art" is considered "art"…

…And people who sleep their lives away…

…And the fact that today's music is NOT like the music we grew up with.

The world has been a much less curmudgeonly place for the past year. We can rant about annoying stuff ourselves… but our rants just don't feel quite as good as Andy Rooney's did.